From arrest to conviction: Court outcomes of police-reported sexual assaults in Canada, 2009 to 2014 - ARCHIVED

While conviction rates and severity of sentencing outcomes are often used as measures of criminal justice, neither take into account the potentially large volume of cases that never made it to court. For the first time, this Juristat measures the 'fall-out' of sexual assault cases in the Canadian criminal justice system in order to provide vital context for how sexual assaults are handled in the justice system. Using linked data from police services and criminal courts, this study presents new findings on the attrition rate of sexual assaults as well as court outcomes for those that make it to court. Attrition and conviction outcomes are also analyzed by characteristics of the sexual assault incident (e.g., location, weapon use, delay in reporting to police), the accused, the victim (e.g., age, sex, physical injury), and the relationship between them in order to provide more detail on how certain factors may be related to a higher likelihood of dropping out of the justice system. Findings are compared with physical assault outcomes where appropriate in order to provide an analytical reference point.